Now that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has turned into an environmental disaster, the White House is again trying to turn public anger at one corporation into massive government intervention of an entire sector of the economy. In an email to his leftist Organizing for America activists, President Barack Obama previewed his Oval Office address tonight calling on Congress “to move forward on legislation to promote a new economy powered by green jobs, combat climate change, and end our dependence on foreign oil.” Separately, Joel Benenson, a pollster for the Democratic National Committee and Obama’s presidential campaign, circulated a memo on Capitol Hill arguing that a comprehensive energy bill “could give Democrats a potent weapon to wield against Republicans in the fall.” Politico reports that Benenson’s recommended “messaging architecture” includes the slogan “Making BP Pay Isn’t Enough” and adds: “frame the opposition” as “Big Oil and corporate polluters who have blocked energy reform for decades” and “politicians protecting the special interests that fund their campaigns.”

The irony here is that BP has been a special interest pushing for carbon pricing on Capitol Hill for years now. It was a founding member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a corporatist entity that exists to enact “fair climate change.” And of course by “fair” they mean whatever subsidies and mandates they can extract from the federal government to best protect their bottom line. So this February, BP actually pulled out of USCAP because they thought: “We can be more effective if we show up in the discussion as BP.” As The Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney reports: “They made out particularly well in the House’s climate bill, while natural gas producers suffered.”

As far as the strategy in the Senate goes, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told The New York Times last week that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) would use elements of the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act, the Cantwell-Collins carbon pricing plan, and the Bingaman renewable energy standard bill. A Senate aide told Politico: “an energy deal must include some serious effort to price carbon as a way to slow climate change.” The important thing to remember is that none of this is new. As Heritage Foundation Senate Relations Deputy Dan Holler reported the day before the Deepwater Horizon explosion, Reid has been planning a bait-and-switch from the beginning: first bringing up the Kerry-Lieberman cap-and-trade bill, striking it, and then replacing it with the less well known Bingaman renewable energy standards.

The left knows that the American public has been educated about the economic harms of cap-and-trade, and they are hoping they can use the BP oil spill to pass renewable energy standards (RES) before the public wises up. Don’t be fooled: an RES is just another way for the enviro-left to inflict an economy-killing energy tax on the American public. The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis has crunched the numbers and found that an RES would: 1) Raise electricity prices by 36 percent for households and 60 percent for industry; 2) Cut national income (GDP) by $5.2 trillion between 2012 and 2035; 3) Cut national income by $2,400 per year for a family of four; 4) Reduce employment by more than 1,000,000 jobs; and 5) Add more than $10,000 to a family of four’s share of the national debt by 2035.

In The Godfather, at Vito Corleone’s funeral, the family consiglieri Tom Hagan leans into the new Don Michael Corleone and whispers: “Do you know how they’re gonna come at’cha?” If the American public wants to avoid a self-inflicted economic disaster on top of the existing environmental one, they need to know how President Obama is going to come after them. Now you know.

Related

Join The Discussion

Sad that there is very little Americans can do to stop this "wreck". Elected officials continue to choose not to listen to the American people. And it would seem Nov 2010 may be too late. If this "cap and trade" goes into effect with or without congressional approval the American taxpayer is once again the "biggest loser" AND this country will pretty much be governed through a socialized system. Very sad….very upsetting.

Of course Mr. Obama will use the oil spill disaster to his political advantage (remember, a serious crisis is too important a thing to waste). He will blame BP, George Bush and every Republican back to Abe Lincoln. He will insist that America's dependence on oil (read the American people) are also to blame. He will insist on passing legislation that creates "green" jobs and especially on Cap & Trade, which will ensure that there will never be another oil spill.

Everyone knows what he is going to say. and everyone should know that nothing he says is believable.

What a nightmare for individual freedom. I've seen totalitarian dictatorships. Have our American people been so dumbed down that they can't understand the direction this nation is being led?And at what speed! Thay know they have to get their stabs in before the elections in November.

This will be a warm summer – not from CO2 but from solar flares. My guess is that Obama et al will never mention the fact the our dormant sun is now awake and getting busy. But then he can't regulate or tax the sun. Obama and his buddies legacy will be the transition to decline of the Untited States – this is his "change". My eight year old daughter will suffer the consequences and for this I hold him in contempt.

After reading this "Morning Bell', it wold not suprise me if BP did not blow up the rig and stall slowing the oil flow. I would not put anything past this Administration. They will do anything to bring this nation down. If BP can cut the pipe, then they can crimp the pipe like a water hose., but this is too simple.

Send down that saw that was used to poorly cut the pipe above a large flange. All you have to do is get rid of the top half of the flange by cutting the bolts connecting it to the lower flange.

Take that saw, horizontally, faced up to the gap in the flange between the two halves of the joined flange. Cut into the gap between the flanges just far enough to cut the bolt connecting the two halves. Then go to the next bolt and cut it. Work the way around the flange eventually cutting all the bolts. Then the top half of the flange can be wedged up and pushed off. The lower half of the cut bolts should drop out.

Lower one of the valves typical of the system, having it's own hydraulic operating system, to match up with the remaining lower half of the flange. Put a couple of tappered pins in opposite sides of the flange half on the lower flange half of the valve. Use a submersible to assist aligning the new valve flange with the lower flange half. Lower the new valve to to match up with the flange half remaining. Insert new bolts into the newly connected complete flange. Use a submersible equipped with a pneumatic socket wrench to start and snug the nuts thus hard-mounting the two flange halves. Then, gasp, shut the dog-on valve.

Note: If they can cut a verticle pipe at a mile deep, they can also do this. Sure, it's not easy. But what is, under those conditions.

The only thing "transparent" with Obama is falseness! The problen is too many people don't want to look or see beyond the surface of this man. Remove the tinsel on top and you'll find the anti-American Marxist beneath.

Ending our dependence on foreign oil which hampers our security is based on the fallacy that the majority of our oil is imported from the Middle East. The fact is that the two largest foreign suppliers of oil are Canada and Mexico.

Starting with the Carter Administration we have talked about developing other sources of energy, inlcuding nuclear, natural gas and even coal as well as renewable sources. We need to increase the number of efficient and safe nuclear plants and develop the technology to clean emissions from coal fired generation plants and build new plants using natural gas.

As for renewable energy, there needs to be a major overhaul of the existing energy infrastructure in order to deploy this, and that is at least 20 years out. Possibly longer given the design/engineering, permitting (federal and state) as well as the probability of litigation.

Everything OBAMA and his DEMOCRAT HENCHMEN and HENCHWOMEN are doing is, as Maxine Waters let slip, "we are about SOCIALIZING YOU!!" and that is about it…total control of the American People. You see, the totally ignorant and politically detached voters, coupled with illegal immigrants/dead voters/voters out of the phone book/imposters/posers, delinquents, convicts(per Hillary!), muslim terrorists in America, government dependents and UNIONS, all voted for "wouldn't it be nice to vote for a black man" Obama. Therein lies the problem…our "leaders" are being voted in by a conglomeration of SELF-INTERESTED, PAY ME 'CAUSE I EXIST, ME-FIRST LUNATICS! How else do we wind up with the Obamas, Pelosis, Reids, Franks, Waters, Schumers, Sanders, Dodds, Byrds(the KKK one which the MEDIA IGNORES..IF HE WAS A REPUBLICAN THE MEDIA WOULD HAVE CRUCUFIED HIM YEARS AGO…BUT DEMS CAN DO NO WRONG!). And MORE!! These people have not a CLUE on JOB BUILDING nor do they have an INTEREST IN IT!! They have NEVER WORKED, NEVER RUN A COMPANY, and like Obama, COMPLETELY INEPT and DEVOID OF "REQUIRED" EXPERIENCE and all they can do is NOW… SPEND then TAX as appropriately pointed out by HERITAGE!! All these people know is "keep that printing machine going and we will have all the money we need". Democrats have never understood the fact "the GOVERNMENT has NO MONEY except for that which they STEAL FROM WORKING AMERICANS!!". We are now saddled with the biggest, in-your-face CROOKS this country has ever seen! They stuff their pockets FIRST! See any of them losing a job, getting laid off, Company going BK because of the GOVERNMENT, or any other reason? Heck no! They just vote themselves another RAISE!! How stupid are WE to put up with these CLOWNS?

This should wake up some people, obama and clan do not care about this country or our people. They only want power and controll over all that has made this country great. If you tell someone long enough that white is black, and black is white they began to believe it. Well obama is in that process, oh it will not hurt, it will not raise the defecit but a little, it will not saddle us with more regulations that we can not live with. The funny thing about it, people began to believe even when the hand writing is on the wall in capitol letters. The dems truley believe that no disaster shouild go to waste, they will use it to make bigger "guvment", spend more money we do not have, and increase their power and controll. They have already trashed the CONSTITUTION, taken away the freedom of choice in health care, restricted the way that CHRISTAN'S can worship, GOD is fobidden in public, but ALLA is praised, Jews are wrong in defending their home land, hammas is justified in all they do, and no we do not have radical muslims in the world.If have given up our right to freedom of speech, in order to be politically correct, and hilary has statred to give up our guns to the un. How much more will be give up?????? VOTE IN NOVEMBER!!!!!

I appreciate all that we've been learning. There are now literally hundreds of thousands of us involved in "getting educated" thanks to Glen Beck and other sources developing these important disclosures. However, what are WE supposed to do?? We need someone to organize us to move forward BOLDLY! What is taking so long? Leaders – step up and organize us to remove this entire administration from our Whitehouse.

Obama is the largest recipitant of BP political contributions. BP is taking instructions from Obama. Obama refused to talk directly with the BP CEO (while the oil continues to flow), yet is talking about nationalizing (taking over) BP. Now we learn BP wrote a part of Obama's Crap and Tax bill that he is trying to shove down our throats, because of the BP spill. Can anyone connect the dots here?

Most of those I've corresonded with were able to smell a rat in this oil spill from the outset. The stall tactics to curb this disaster put up by the feds is the most transparent whitewash this administration has come up with yet. I'm a little disappointed Senator Joe Lieberman couldn't see through this, but certainly not surprised Senator John Kerry would be behind it. BP was running ads extolling its green initiatives long before they blew up that platform. It's only common decency they should put up a bond for the families of those 11 victims. The only scheme here is they have to make it look like President Obama was the driving force behind the "humanitarian" effort.

As Rahm Emanuel says, never let a good crisis go to waste. And believe you me they will not. They will 'use' this oil spill to promote and ram down our throats CAP N TRADE, better known as cap and tax. The more tax we pay the more control the government will have……….. get off your sofa and get active if you aren't already. If we do not vote out the current 'gang' in DC we will be very unhappy at the state of our nation after November elections. WE and our kids will no longer live in the free nation we've known prior to this point in history. Wake up before it's too late.

Nothing surprises me about the thugocracy we have in D.C. at the present time. "Bait and Switch"? Pshaw, its just Chicago politics in the congress led by the thugs and crooks in the White House.

Harry Reid? By this time next year, hopefully, he will be history in D.C. along with most of his buddies in the House and some in the Senate. Then we can start straightening out the mess the "progressives" have perpetrated on this nation.

The problem is that a lot of Americans with a lot being democrats do not know anything about government. You would think with what is going on in the country

and the world they would try and read and see the truth. It does seem to be happening a little but as long as this continues congress will just do what they want. They have to get mail from both sides to maybe slow them down. We have

never had a president that was a socialist and doing things to get around congress

with all his czars that congress has no control over. I just do not know how long

I wish the Administration would just come clean with their real goals, rather then using the excuses that are policially correct. This administration has been on a non-stop PR spin to hide the actual truth. At least this country is getting a taste of what never to vote for in the future. November can’t come fast enough, and 2012 will be a celebration after this administration has been totally removed from office after the election.

[…] for decades and politicians protecting the special interests that fund their campaigns.” (Here is their full game plan) The bad news for Democrats is that BP has been lobbying for these carbon taxes for […]

On October 31, 2008, at a campaign rally at the University of Missouri, candidate Barack Obama said “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” What he didn't say was that it would be transformed into a third-world country!!!

Perhaps the Democrats have chosen a bad time to preach against capitalism. Hopefully, average American voters are smart enough to understand that King Ubu's attack on Big Business is an attack on Big Employment..

Unless all future history books are written by liberals, Obama will take over Jimmy Carter's place as the worst President oe all time. I pray he will be a one term president. It will take a decade to undo the damage he has done. Our national debt is making paupers of our children and grandchildren.. It scares me that he recently admitted to an Egyptian Foreign Minister that he is a Muslim. I guess that is why he cancelled America's Prayer Day then was shortly afterward was photographed praying with other Muslims in a Mosque. Will he be trying to change our law to Sharia law???

A rational analysis of climate change acknowledges that our planet has been warming for 12,000 years (since the last ice age). It will probably continue to warm–perhaps slightly aided by man’s activities–until the next climate cycle. It makes no sense to decimate the world’s economies in order to deal with a small future change in the mean temperature of the planet. Man and the biosphere has always adapted to the realities of changing climate. There is no need for a national policy on climate change, except as an idealogical drive to control people and resources: e.g., get people out of their preferred mode of transportation, production, and consumption and making everyone dependent on government dictated solutions. Green jobs are a cost of the envisioned future without hydrocarbons. The greater costs entailed are a loss in economic efficiency and a reduction in our freedoms.

President Obama wants to do the same thing to the oil business that was done to the Nuclear Indistry. This will either cause a war in other parts of the world for oil, or a drastic change in how Americans live thier lives. I fear the disaster in the gulf is far more serious than the media, or the administration is telling us.

Obama’s energy charge (Cap and Trade) “would be the equivalent of an atomic bomb directed at the U.S. economy—all without any scientific justification,” said famed climatologist Dr. S. Fred Singer. It would significantly increase taxes and the cost of energy, forcing many companies to close, thus increasing unemployment, poverty and dependence.

Cap and trade represents huge taxes and cost increases, which will hurt mostly the poor and the middle class. Cap and trade will give dictatorial powers to Obama and will further enrich his billionaire friends (Gore, Soros, Goldman Sachs, Obama’s Chicago Climate Exchange friends, GE, the United Nations, etc.) — all at our expense and at the expense of our children and grandchildren.

Obama and his accomplices know how bad cap and trade would be for us, but they want to force us to swallow it because they expect to further empower and enrich themselves at our expense.

Numerous economic studies support a leaked memo from the Obama administration that said restricting carbon dioxide emissions will have a severe negative impact on the U.S. economy.

The inaction of this white house was more than likely intentional so they could pass the cap & tax and socialize yet another large part of our economy. We almost do not have a free market anymore. Everyone needs to speak out and organize and educate as many people as we can so that we can take our republic back!

Once again the socialist agenda is going to override what is good for America. I am the owner of a small manufacturing business that employees 12 people. I can see their jobs vanishing and going to offshore countries that don’t give damn about the enviornment.
What is even worse is that by taking these jobs out of America we will increase the worlds emissions. Remember, we are the only nation to actually reduce our emission after the kyboto accord. All other industrial nations increased their emission out put.
Left to their own, the world petroleum industry would have this spill contained. The Dutch, British and Saudis all offered their assets and experience only to have Obama refuse their help. After 60 days, it is evident that the administration is using the disaster to futher their goals of facisam. Senator Reid has made it clear that he will use this spill to force cap and trade through. He is the senator from my state and I have vowed to do everything I can to convience his democrat supporter to vote him out. So far I have pledges from four, by November that number will be 12. Now is not the time to give up the fight, It’s a moral fight to save this country for our children and grand children.
God bless and save America.

The sad part is that most of the true Americans are sticking their heads in the sand. Also the fact that they can't or don't read the truth about what is going on. It's like they don't want to get involved. Take a stand and bombard the White House and our Representatives with emails and ph calls, they will listen. What if Thomas Jefferson and that crowd had just let the British run over us.

Encourage the people you work with and send emails with the real information you don't see on TV.

Having spent a number of years as Captain of a large Offshore Oil Supply Vessel, the type

that you saw spraying water on the burning oil rig. I was screaming at the TV, saying " don't sink the rig, let it continue to burn." filling that rig with water, sinking it, was the second mistake. The first was not flowing strict procedures well established by Haliburton, and industy tested. But, the most UNBELIEVABLE mistake is NOT allowing the Dutch, the French, the Saudis, to send in equipment immediately, as was offered. Bush set aside the "Jones Act," during Katrina.

This just goes to show you what happens when you have left wing liberals get power in Washington. Congress is out of control with its power grabbing members from both parties who spend money like it is water. We now have a far left president who ignores the wishes of the majority of the people in this country who do not like socialistic policies. Thanks to all the knuckleheads who voted for these far left liberal democarats (a.k.a. progressives/socialists) thinking the change Mr. Obama was talking about would result in something we would actually want. The country is now divided more than ever and our only hope of stopping the economic and social train wreck we are on is to vote all these rascals out of office in november and replace this president with a conservative who means business in 2012. The Republicans who have been on a spending spree for the Bush years also need to go. Better yet, we need a state initiated constitutional amendment to limit the terms of Congress to no more than 12 years and force a balanced budget at the federal level.

I know most people will think I am a paranoid nut job, but I have said from the beginning this BP blowout is a job of sabotage. If you know anything about Obama and his agenda which is based on his Saul Alinsky philosophy, and his desire to socialize this country, then the timing of his "drill "speech and the blowout is uncanny. "We will drill in theGulf" and 24 hours later–BP blowout. Why? Cap and Trade of course! It appeared after the rape of ObamaCare, the congress had no stomach for the cap and tax or "climate change" battle;however, we forgot how driven and ruthless this guy is. He governs by crisis-driven situations. This is the biggest natural disaster of the century. He fiddled around for weeks before even addressing it and now it is all "Big Oil" and the monsters who work for them. Where are the real investigative journalists in this country? Why isn't anyone with the power and resources looking into this?

We have got to change the power structure of DC in November and bring charges of impeachment against this fool and run his thugs out of our Capitol.

No question that the gulf gusher is a total disaster, but it is should not be made a red herring for ceasing oil exploitation in lieu of "safe" resouces. How many airplanes have we crashed, killing thousands of people but do we ban air travel in knee-jerk fashion? No, we move on and take steps to prevent or reduce the likelihood of a recurrence.

We do need to pursue renewable energy resources, but don't stop retrieving crude till some new magic bullet is in place. Wind and solar will help, but cannot supply even a fraction of current demand for electricity.

[…] Morning Bell: The Obama Energy Tax Game Plan? – After reading this “Morning Bell‘, it would not suprise me if BP did not blow up the rig and stall slowing the oil flow. I would not put anything past this … Heritage.org (blog) […]

opportunist predatory tactics,using a crisis to sieze moneys which they did not produce, extorsionist, marxist, monarchy, where does all the existing taxes go!? its an addiction to congress, they spend it all into negative then decide who too sack next, worse than common thief or strong armed robbery, 99% of all the taxes are stolen & go to personal gain & more power, ask yourself what have you ever gained, what benifit have you ever procured from ANY tax hike, the answer is none, you & your familys never did or will see any benifit from any of it, & When all the big corps are owned & persecuted for their footprint, YOU are next, wake up lemmings!

i like the argument that since society has grown so much, that the constitution must be re interpreted, BECAUSE, if that is the case, then also we should have 100 times the number of state rep,s & a dozen presidents at the same time, change with the times right, wheres the other half of this blatent double standard? H Y P O C R A C Y at its finest, what a sick sick joke govt has played on the lowly peasant ppls who dont matter to them, we are regarded as fodder for guns & persecution, & of course the croneys see it thru rose colored glasses, & will tell you how much they really care about the working class & how dearly they want to help, when in reality its only self serving, deals n deals n deals to be made, for self gain, this is the agenda of our leaders, they dont give a shit for anyone save themselves.

Don’t have time to read the Washington Post or New York Times? Then get The Morning Bell, an early morning edition of the day’s most important political news, conservative commentary and original reporting from a team committed to following the truth no matter where it leads.

Email address

Ever feel like the only difference between the New York Times and Washington Post is the name? We do. Try the Morning Bell and get the day’s most important news and commentary from a team committed to the truth in formats that respect your time…and your intelligence.